5.3 Miscellaneous Classes

5.3.1 InetAddress Class

public final class InetAddress extends Object implements Serializable

 

Object

  InetAddress

Interfaces

Serializable

 

An InetAddress object represents an IP address. The InetAddress class provides no public constructors. An InetAddress object is obtained from one of the static InetAddress object creation methods in this class.

Static InetAddress Object Creation Methods

Method	Syntax
getAllByName()	public static InetAddress[] getAllByName         (String hostName)   throws UnknownHostException
getByName()	public static InetAddress getByName(String hostName)   throws UnknownHostException
getLocalHost()	public static InetAddress getLocalHost()   throws UnknownHostException

 

getAllByName() returns an array of InetAddress objects containing all of the IP addresses corresponding to the specified host name. The specified host name can either be a machine name, like "www.wrox.com", or an IP address such as "204.148.170.3".

 

getByName() returns an InetAddress object representing the primary IP address corresponding to the specified host name.

 

getLocalHost() returns an InetAddress object containing the IP address of the local host machine.

equals() Method

Method	Syntax
equals()	public boolean equals(Object obj)

 

equals() overrides the equals() method from the Object class and returns true if Object obj is an InetAddress and contains the same IP address as the invoking InetAddress object.

hashCode() Method

Method	Syntax
hashCode()	public int hashCode()

 

hashCode() overrides the hashCode() method from the Object class and returns a hash code for the invoking InetAddress object.

Methods to Return InetAddress Properties

Method	Syntax
getAddress()	public byte[] getAddress()
getHostAddress()	public String getHostAddress()
getHostName()	public String getHostName()
isMulticastAddress()	public boolean isMulticastAddress()

 

getAddress() returns a byte array containing the IP address of the invoking InetAddress object.

 

getHostAddress() returns a String representation of the IP address of the invoking InetAddress object.

 

getHostName() method attempts to return the host name associated with the IP address contained by the invoking InetAddress object. This method returns a String representation of the IP address if it cannot determine the host name.

 

isMulticastAddress() returns true if the invoking InetAddress object represents a multicast IP address.

toString() Method

Method	Syntax
toString()	public String toString()

 

toString() overrides the toString() method from the Object class and returns a String representation of the IP address associated with the invoking InetAddress object.

 

Example: Using InetAddress

See the ClientCLP class from example Using the Connectionless Protocol on page 8.